A big-night-out extravaganza, Maison Bâtard is a temple to fine Burgundy wines with epic French-centric menus to match, both in the restaurant and on the rooftop terrace.
Quick history lesson. Legend has it that in medieval times the Lord of Puligny, the ruler of what is now the French region of Burgundy, carved up his lands between his eldest son, the knight (le chevalier), his daughters, the maidens (les pucelles), and his illegitimate son – to use a term that might sound a bit Game of Thrones, his bastard. Or, in French, le bâtard. Fast-forward to today and that land grows some of the most sought-after chardonnay grapes in the world.
Bâtard-Montrachet is one of the greatest Grand Cru Burgundies (that is to say about as good as white wine gets), and restaurateur Chris Lucas has named his latest venue Maison Bâtard, tipping the hat to the wines that are his passion, while also enjoying a knowing chuckle in calling a restaurant “Bastard House”.
Bastard it may or may not be, but Bâtard’s claim to being one of the biggest openings of the year is strictly legit. Chris has taken everything he’s learned running runaway successes such as Chin Chin, Yakimono and Grill Americano, plus everything he’s picked up on many, many deep dives into the bars and restaurants of Paris and the cellars of Beaune and come up with a take-no-prisoners, big-night-out, four-floor extravaganza. We’re talking chandeliers, we’re talking acres of oysters on hillsides of ice, we’re talking sunken bars and basement jazz, duck-shaped decanters, and 2,600 wines. There’s a rooftop terrace (or terrasse) ready for cocktails and club sandwiches, there are two floors of restaurant, and there’s a glitzy basement club set up for live music and late nights. It was pretty much a capital-S Scene from the day it opened. It’s a hoot.
If you’ve got the money or, better still, if someone else is paying, when you’re in a place named after a famous Burgundy, you probably oughta drink a famous Burgundy. There are pages and pages of the stuff here – nearly 20 of red Burgundy alone, plus deep dives into sought-after producers like Vincent Dauvissat. And when the list has been put together by a crack team of somms for an owner who really (really) likes Burgundy, you can rest assured you’re getting the good stuff. Is it expensive? Yes, it is. But that is the Burgundy-drinker’s burden. It comes with the turf. What if you didn’t happen to bring your sugar-parent of choice, or left your spare wallet at home? We’re not going to try to tell you that Bâtard is all about the bargains. It’s just not that kind of place. But there’s still a good dozen or so wines on the list for under $100, often in the form of classic good buys such as riesling from Clare, Alsace whites and Beaujolais.
Big-name Australian producers get prominent billing, especially if they make chardonnay or pinot noir, and there’s a smattering of international names, but otherwise France is unashamedly the focus here.
The by-the-glass options are very strong, there’s a lot of them, and many of the fancier ones are offered in both 75ml and 150ml pours, and/or poured from a magnum. (At $313 for a 75ml glass, that Etienne Sauzet 2015 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru might be the most serious three sips of chardonnay you’ll ever have.) In Champagne, Dom, Piper and Ruinart are all on by the glass, and you can also get flights of the sommelier’s “feature wines”, so three small pours of, say, different vintages of Haut-Brion, one of the biggest Bordeaux names, so you can see for yourself if it really does “waft from the glass with a rich bouquet of blackberries, blackcurrants, cigar wrapper, loamy soil, black truffle, burning embers and vine smoke”.
If you’re up on the terrace, you might be all about the cocktails. The focus up here is Martinis and Champagne cocktails, plus a generous handful of house specials. There’s a bit of French jazz or a twist of some kind in most of them: walnut liqueur in the house Champagne cocktail, for example, or the herbal liqueur Génépi turning the Gibson (Tanqueray 10, a vermouth blend and pickled onions) into an Alpine Gibson. A Champagne Piña Colada might sound like a questionable idea – at least until you see one glide past on a tray, all frosty coconut-sorbet perfection, and then you simply must have one.
You can eat a full meal upstairs, choosing from a short, smart menu of plats classiques – “le cheeseburger”, a steak tartare, a club sandwich, a steak au poivre, crab linguine and a salade Niçoise – but it’s also a temple to superior snacking, with 10 different oyster choices, seafood platters, and an array of hors d’oeuvres and petits plats that invites closer inspection. Staking out a spot under the stars with a Martini and a little savoury doughnut, or some king prawns with lime and parsley would be a perfectly acceptable way to pass a summer evening.
Downstairs in the restaurant the menu is epic. This is clearly a venue designed for repeat visits rather than a once-a-year blowout, and you’d need to dine at Bâtard at least half a dozen times to get anywhere near seeing it all. There are 20 smaller plates, 18 main courses and eight sides. In a nutshell, the vibe is classic brasserie gone luxe, with a dose of extra theatre. The gougères – airy little puffs of Comté cheese – are god’s gift to Champagne. The tuna tartare, topped with avocado, has admirable zing, while the spice-perfumed lobster omelette, served in a gorgeous little copper pan, is luscious and rich, almost more like lobster dressed with egg than the other way around.
The big plates (“Grands Plats de la Maison Bâtard”) are perfect for big tables and multiple bottles of wine. There’s a 600-gram pork rib-eye, half a lobster with an endive and citrus salad, and a whole duck with peas and choron, a Béarnaise sauce enriched with tomato. Order the roast chicken with green olives and you’ll get a half or whole bird swimming in a sea of good sauce that demands frites, salad and quite possibly another bottle of wine. It’s basically the antithesis of fine-dining restaurants that serve tiny morsels of food over a dozen courses on tiny plates. The chocolate mousse, served tableside from its own little mousse trolley, is already a signature.
